A Missy Hart Update

Remember this? It was from February of this year and it pointed out that while Melissa Hart had declared her intention to run for Representative Jason Altmire's seat a few months earlier, her website hadn't been updated. In fact it hadn't been updated since before the 2006 election.

First off, her website's been updated. Oh, frabjous day!

In any event, Dennis Roddy (who, while usually shorter than me, is still wicked-smaht) has a compare and contrast column on the Altmire-Hart race.

Some highlights:

Two years out of Congress and looking for a way back in, former Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, says she now wishes she'd cast a few budget votes differently, but believes a head-to-head comparison with the man who ousted her now works in her favor.

"I think we'll now have an opportunity with a record and a record to actually see two very different people," Ms. Hart said. "This is a choice election, not a change election."

Ms. Hart's comments came yesterday during a sometimes-contentious meeting with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board.

Must've been a fun meeting. That middle sentence came as a surprise. Seeing that Hart's party's presidential candidate has said otherwise. From Time.com:

Tuesday night, John McCain, who turns 72 in August, began making the case that the answer to all those questions is yes. With Barack Obama running on the slogan "Change We Can Believe In," the four-term Senator from Arizona might have chosen to avoid the reform motif entirely, to run instead on "experience" or "leadership." But he and his campaign have decided they have no choice but to embrace the idea that voters want change above all. They also believe that Obama is the chimera of change, while McCain can actually deliver it. "This is, indeed, a change election," McCain said in New Orleans, the second time in two months that he's chosen that Katrina-ravaged city to make a point of distinguishing himself from George W. Bush. "But the choice is between the right change and the wrong change; between going forward and going backward." [emphasis added]

Perhaps Missy didn't get the memo that day.

In any case, it's still an uphill battle for Missy.

Point one - According to the Cook Report from June of 2008 detailing competitive House races, the Representative Altmire's district (PA-04) is still in the "leans Democratic" (meaning it's a competitive district, but the Democrats have the advantage).

Point two - According to the OpenSecrets.Org, as of April 2 of this year, Altmire has raised $1.6 million of which he's spent $359,000 leaving him with about $1.3 million cash on hand. Hart, on the other hand, has raised only $529,000 and spent $143,000 leaving her with $393,000 cash on hand.

He's got a tad over $1.3 million, she's got a skosh below $400,000. It's pretty close to a 4-to-1 ratio in funds.

Can Missy expect any help from the NRCC? Sad to say, but probably not. According (again) to Opensecrets.org, the NRCC has only about $6.7 million on hand while the DCCC (it's counterpart from the Democratic Party) has a whopping $45.3 million on hand.

That's about a 7-to-1 advantage to the Democrats.